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Daily Scripture

+ 20th Week in Ordinary Time

I’ll do it myself.

Readings: Ezekiel 34:1-11 Psalm 23:1-6 Matthew 20:1-16

Therefore, shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: because my shepherds did not look after my sheep, but pastured themselves and did not pasture my sheep, I will claim my sheep from them and put a stop to their shepherding my sheep. I will save my sheep, that they may no longer be food for their mouths. [Ezekiel 34:10]

There is much talk about a vocation shortage—fewer young men entering the seminary and fewer still persevering to ordination. Not withstanding some notable exceptions this has resulted in the lowering of standards for ordination. Moreover, priests and candidates for the priesthood are being ‘imported’ from other countries whose needs are as urgent as ours.

The prevailing accent seems to be on the need to have a sufficient number of priests to ‘say Mass’ and provide for the sacramental needs of the faithful. But surely in the light of the Second Vatican Council, priests need to be more than presiders at Mass and providers of the sacraments, as important as are these roles.

The earliest experience of the Church can be instructive in this regard. The notion of presbyter provided the early church with presiders for worship and leaders for base communities. Celibacy was not an issue and there was no clerical caste. The gifts of the faithful were recognized in such a manner that men and women, married and single fulfilled the spiritual needs of the community including the sacramental needs.

Notwithstanding the inadequacy of the notion of shepherding people (sheeple?) the need remains for qualified men and women to minister to the needs of the community.

Ezekiel warned the priests and assured the people of Israel that God would find away to pasture his people.

Ezekiel’s words need to be taken to heart again and in fact we already see that God is indeed providing a way through the action of the Holy Spirit in the lives of men and women, married and single, who are tending to the needs of the faithful.

Feast of Saints Peter and Paul

Sunday June 29, 2008

Many voices but one witness.

It is amazing how with the help of scripture scholars and ordinary human insights we continue to find new applications to ancient biblical texts particularly on special occasions such as today’s feast of Ss Peter and Paul.

Both became extraordinary witnesses, Peter, a simple fisherman, who enjoyed a close personal friendship with Jesus, and Paul, a tentmaker, whose relationship with Jesus developed only after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Each with a unique personality and peculiar style of ministry, they employed different skills and techniques in bearing witness to what God had done for them in Christ.

However, prior to the trial of Jesus, we find a very different picture of Peter. There we see an ambitious but cowardly man unable to grasp the significance of Jesus mission and the unique role he would play in the lives of many. His fragile faith led to his threefold denial at the arrest of Jesus by the Roman soldiers. No doubt this is the reason why John preceded Jesus’ command to Peter to feed his lambs, feed his sheep with the threefold question about Peter’s love for him.

Paul’s motto could easily be summed up in that succinct but unequivocal axiom, “Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead!” But he too had a previous history that was less than complimentary. He was a terrorist of sorts.

But Peter and Paul were empowered by the life and even more so by the death and resurrection of Jesus to tell his story and to sing his song. They were more concerned about the person and story of Jesus and the song that he sung rather than in the formulation of complex dogmas and doctrines. These evolved in time but they are not the stuff that makes us who we are as believers.

Peter and Paul came to know wherein lay their strength. Peter’s encounter with Jesus was live, in person and unrehearsed. Paul’s encounter with Jesus was in a vision but every bit as real and personal as Peter’s.

In recent years Catholics have become more aware of the fragile nature of the Church as it continues to turn the corner in a new millennium. We have witnessed the highs and lows of church life as we strive to engage in a healthy relationship with a healthy God in a turbulent world.

It is of the nature of the Church to image God in the same way as Jesus imaged God. Jesus mentored his disciples. He challenged but never hassled them.

It is the responsibility of Church—all of us—to establish within our particular environments, conditions for love. And love demands the freedom to respond and the freedom to grow.

For me, the Church is first and foremost a people. A Catholic parish is primarily a gathering place, real and symbolic, where the song of Jesus is sung with clarity, faith stories shared and community celebrated. It is real because it brings people into physical contact with one another; symbolic because it is not defined by or confined to a building or a geographical location. The Church exists wherever people gather in the name of Christ.

The parish is multifaceted. Sometimes it echoes the heartbeat of a big city with a variety of activities all taking place at the same time. At other times, it reflects the stillness of a hermitage, a respite from the hectic pace of modern living. Most of the time, it is a mixture of both. Although it attempts to influence the world in which it is located, it is also influenced by that world as it struggles to maintain its unique role in the world.

The parish is as diverse as its members—culturally, ethnically, educationally, socially, theologically and spiritually. While it reflects the human traits and attitudes of its members, it also attempts to offer a spiritual context for human experiences, enabling its members to interpret human events in the light of faith and one’s creative intelligence. Remember, we do not leave our intelligence at the door of the church as we enter.

The Catholic parish is composed of saints and sinners and it is sometimes difficult if not impossible to distinguish one from the other. Perhaps it is more accurate to state that there is a saint an sinner in each of us.

Because people mature at a difference pace, our individual response to God is unique. The parish includes among its members those who are struggling with belief as well as those who have reached a high degree of intimacy with God.

Baptism is the primordial sacrament that empowers us to service inside and outside the Church. The Eucharist is our binding force.

As faithful stewards, we are partners and collaborators in Christian service. We can accomplish alone only a fraction of what we can accomplish together and together we form a network of people who complement one another rather than compete in the exercise of a common stewardship for the glory of God.

We are dreamers but our feet are rooted firmly in the tradition of the Church. We are traditional but not traditionalist, i.e., we are not stuck in tradition. We strive to honor in word and deed, the faith that comes to us from the Apostles but we seek to live that faith in an ever-changing world and use our creative intelligence to face new challenges with new insights rather than old frozen solutions that have long since expired.

In his challenging book, “Confronting Power and Sex in the Roman Catholic Church—Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus,” Bishop Geoffrey Robinson puts it this way:

“The most fundamental change of heart and mind required of us is that of a constant return to the Great Tradition, the person and story of Jesus Christ, and the song that he sang.”

“For in everything he did and in everything he said, Jesus Christ sang a song. Sometimes, where he cured a sick person, he sang softly and gently, a song full of love. Sometimes, when he told one of his beautiful stories, he sang a haunting melody, the kind of melody that, once heard, is never forgotten, the sort of melody you hum throughout the day without even knowing that you are doing it. Sometimes, when he defended the rights of the poor, his voice grew strong and powerful, until finally, from the cross, he sang so powerfully that his voice filled the universe.”

“The disciples who heard him thought that this was the most beautiful song they had ever heard, and they began to sing it to others. They didn’t sing as well as Jesus had —they forgot some of the words, their voices sometimes went flat—but they sang to the best of their ability, and the people who heard them thought in their turn that this was the most beautiful song they had ever heard.”

“And so the song of Jesus gradually spread out from Jerusalem to other lands. Parents sang it to their children and it began to be passed down through the generations and through the centuries.”

“Sometimes, in the lives of great saints, the song was sung with exquisite beauty. At other times and by other people it was sung very badly indeed, for the song was so beautiful that there was power in possessing it, and people used the power of that son to march to war and to oppress and dominate others. Despite this, the song was always greater than the singers and its ancient beauty could never be destroyed.”

“And so the song continued through the centuries, sung in many languages and forms, argued about, fought over, treated as a possession, distorted, covered by many layers of human accretions, but always captivating people by its sheer simplicity and aching beauty.”

“At last the song came down to us and, like so many people before us, we too wre captured by the song, and wanted to sing it with our whole being. The song must not stop with us, and we in our turn must hand on its beauty to those who come after us. We must always remember that this song has two special characteristics. The first is that we too sing it badly, but if we sing it to the best of our ability, people do not hear only our voices. Behind us and through us they hear a stronger and surer voice, the voice of Jesus.”

“The second is that we always sing it better when we learn to sing it together—not one voice here, another voice there, each singing different words to different melodies, but all singing the one song in harmony, for it is still the most beautiful song the world has ever known.” [Geoffrey Robinson, “Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church—Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus,” Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN 2008]